How the Stasi suppressed resistance in East Germany

NARRATOR: Despite the festive pictures of New Year's Eve celebrations it's clear to all observers at the beginning of 1989 that the GDR's economy is on its knees. But the Central Committee and Politburo of East Germany's ruling party, the SED, tries to project the image of a happy, ideal world to its citizens. But shortages are becoming ever more noticeable. Industry is severely outdated and the inner cities are crumbling. What's more, the people are imprisoned in their own country, something that only serves to reinforce their sense of powerlessness. Many people want freedom.

The first protesters begin to meet in the churches. It's the only place they're safe. Everywhere else the state is able to ban large groups from assembling. The discussions that take place in the Gethsemane Church in Berlin give impetus to the peaceful revolution that will ultimately topple this totalitarian state. But the Stasi spies are keeping a very close eye on the meetings. They write reports on the opposition groups for the leaders of their unjust state. Few, however, recognize the real extent of the danger. Even the priest Rainer Eppelmann was oblivious to it.

RAINER EPPELMANN: "We now know that plans were being developed at that time, based on information provided by the Stasi, for camps to imprison the main ringleaders. That way the state would be able to gain control over the opposition groups."

PETER ROMANOWSKI: "I'm aware of the plans. It's true that such camps were being planned and each district and government department had lists of people who they feared could be very dangerous to the security of the GDR in the event of war."

NARRATOR: Apparently the SED considers itself to be at war - at war with their own citizens who aren't functioning as the leadership would like. The party tries to shore up its power through terror and draconian punishments against dissidents. The prisons are full to bursting with political prisoners. One of these prisoners is Birgit Schlicke. Her crime is to have voiced her desire to leave the GDR to a human rights organization based in West Germany. A West German Stasi spy denounced her. While in Stasi custody, she's subjected to psychological torture before being transferred to the prison at Hoheneck.

BIRGIT SCHLICKE: "I was so afraid of being transferred to Hoheneck because it was notorious for being the worst women's prison in the GDR. We were delivered here in transport vehicles and, first of all, we had to go to the so called effectin. There our personal belongings and clothes were taken from us and we were dressed in prisoners' clothes. The women who worked there were murderers. I was 19 years old then and had never had any contact with criminals. Suddenly I was confronted with these very brutal-looking women covered head to toe in tattoos with almost no teeth. I'd been thrown into a completely alien world and it frightened me to death."

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, the initially timid protests grow louder and the Stasi is there to hear them. They keep their Politburo comrades constantly informed of the situation on the streets.

ROMANOWSKI: "The party leadership in Berlin couldn't fault us for giving them inaccurate reports of the situation."

NARRATOR: Nobody knows what's going to happen next. Nobody knows how far the part in the Stasi are prepared to go to secure their power. The situation is a powder keg waiting to explode. On the eighth of April, 1989, seven months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, border guards fire for the last time ever at a would-be defector trying to cross at . This despite the fact that the order to shoot had been rescinded five days earlier.

The Stasi now cracks down even more brutally on potential dissidents. They keep detailed records so as to be better able to identify troublemakers at a later point in time. Everything moves very rapidly from now on. So rapidly, in fact, that even the members of the Politburo are overtaken by the pace of events. In May 1989, Hungary dismantles its border installations with neighboring Austria, despite the opposition of the GDR leadership. Moscow has promised not to interfere in the domestic politics of countries in the Eastern Bloc. A little later, tens of thousands of GDR citizens flee across the Hungarian border with Austria and on to West Germany. The SED is powerless to act. More and more people are fleeing each day and the GDR is left a state demolished by its own citizens. Citizens who no longer want to tolerate their lack of liberties and constant surveillance by the Stasi find a route to freedom.